The Government had “no choice” but to put in place emergency measures for prison overcrowding, a minister has said.

Lord James Timpson, minister for prisons, probation and reducing reoffending, said the previous government ran prisons “so hot for so long” it meant Labour had to introduce the emergency measures.

Speaking at his first Prison Governors’ Association conference on Tuesday in Nottingham since he took up the role, Lord Timpson said it has “not been easy” to rehabilitate offenders because the system is “teetering on disaster”.

He said: “We have to take the tough decisions bringing changes to release to ease the pressure on our prisons. It was quite frankly a rescue effort. If we had not acted our justice system would have grinded to a halt – we would have faced a total breakdown of law and order.

“We only have to look at the recent disorder on our streets to see how close to catastrophe we came. We brought the violence to an end, but in the process we came dangerously close to running out of prisons entirely.

“The last government allowed prisons to run so hot for so long we had no choice but to introduce emergency measures. To attempt to delay any further would have allowed our justice system to collapse.

“The Government will rebuild and reform the system. We will accelerate the prison building programme to make sure we have the cells we need.”

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said measures such as the early release scheme, also known as SDS40, “understandably” worry the public.

Mr Taylor said to the conference: “Schemes to manage the prison population such as ECSL (end of custody supervised licence) under the previous government, and the more recent SDS40, while necessary, have understandably worried the public.

“Many will have been surprised, for example, to learn that some prisoners are typically released after serving 50% of their sentence, let alone the 40% from SDS40.

“SDS40 and the attention around it has usefully revealed some of the challenges many of us in this room are all too familiar with.

“But prisons can only do so much, the work of probation and other services is critical in reducing reoffending and recall. The importance of prisoners being released to suitable accommodation, for example, is vital.”